Advances in nanoscale fabrication are leading to remarkably innovative devices for electronics, photonics, energy harvesting, and other applications. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are being extended to the nanoscale (NEMS) in the context of nanosized actuators, motors, robots, and locomotive devices.
A challenge with these technologies relates to dynamically controlling motion and deformation at the nanoscale level. Piezoelectric materials have been used for dynamical control of material deformation by the application of an external electromagnetic field, in a wide variety of applications from pressure sensors to acoustic transducers to high voltage generators. Piezoelectricity is traditionally thought to be an intrinsic property of a particular material phase, for example, wurtzite structure.
However, many piezoelectric materials are limited in application due to one or more of composition, size and relatively limited interactivity variation.